Obama also demonstrated continued improvement with whites, working class Democrats, and rural and suburban voters since Super Tuesday.

He split white women, marking about a 10-point improvement since early February. He also won half of married women, and even won single women. Obama took six in ten white men, a demographic that has shifted between the two candidates throughout the race. His white male support also marked about a 10-point improvement since Super Tuesday.

Regionally, the news was no better for Clinton. Obama won a majority of suburban voters, something Clinton did on Super Tuesday. He split rural voters, whom Clinton had won by about 20 points two weeks ago. Clinton also had won a slight majority of urban voters then. Obama won Wisconsin city dwellers by about a two to one ratio.

The gains across the Democratic electorate echoed results last week in Maryland and Virginia. It offered Obama strong indications that he may be well positioned coming into the critical contest in Ohio in two weeks, where the demographic makeup is not significantly dissimilar from Wisconsin.

In a state where half the voters were white women, where only one in ten voters were minorities, and where more than half were from households that made less than $74,999 annually, Wisconsin should have comported with Clinton's strengths. But the exit polls, conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International for television networks and the Associated Press, offered scarce news of encouragement for the New York senator.

Clinton remained competitive among Democrats. But it was a victory for Obama to split even the white Democrats.

The Clinton campaign had hedged expectations going into Wisconsin, as an open primary. Obama has won independents throughout the race. And Wisconsin was no different.

Obama won independents by a two to one ratio, which amounted to one in four voters. Obama won every philosophical persuasion of Democrat. Those who identified as "very liberal" to "somewhat conservative" voted for the Illinois senator. Half the electorate were liberal and Obama won them by double digits. The largest share of voters, though, identified as moderates. And Obama won a clear majority of their support.

On the issues, Obama won those voters by double digits who said the war in Iraq or the economy was the most important issue facing the country. About four in ten Democrats, as well as Republicans, said the economy was what most concerned them coming into the Wisconsin contest.

For Republicans, John McCain further cemented his status as the presumptive Republican nominee. McCain won across demographic groups and showed some strength with his base Tuesday.

McCain won conservatives overall, though losing the most strict among them. McCain also won those voters who said that illegal immigration was the most important issue, a rare feat for the Republican candidate who has been dogged by the issue throughout the primaries.

Within the GOP electorate, McCain won those who were "somewhat conservative" by about 20 points. It was a significant margin over Mike Huckabee with this moderately conservative bloc of Republican voters.

Yet Huckabee still won "very conservative" voters, as he consistently has in head to head match ups with McCain. Huckabee won this third of Republicans by about 10 points. McCain has yet to successfully draw these most conservative voters into his coalition. McCain’s continued strength with moderates and independents, however, continued to compensate for his weakness with some conservatives.

McCain won more than three times as many moderate or liberal Republicans as Huckabee, who were about four in ten GOP voters. McCain, as expected, also won independents by double digits.

About four in ten Republicans voted on terrorism or the war in Iraq; McCain won them by a two to one ratio over Huckabee. McCain also won by double digits those voters who were most concerned about the economy.

But it was the Democratic contest that garnered most of the attention Tuesday, as Obama captured his ninth victory.

About half of Democrats, as they often have, said they most valued in a candidate that he or she "can bring about needed change." Obama won them by a three to one ratio. Obama also narrowly won those voters who said they sought a nominee who "cares about people like me." Clinton won nearly every voter who said experience mattered most, but they were merely a quarter of Democratic voters.

Clinton still won seniors and held onto small branches of her working class support. She won those voters who only had a high school education, about a quarter of Democratic voters. But she only split those voters who make less than $50,000 annually, once a cornerstone of her support.

McCain won conservatives overall, though losing the most strict among them.

GOOD! The Right Winger NUT JOBBERS are preventing our party from growth. Ann Coulter (Hillary loving Liberal is one of the nut jobbers I am glad to see outta this party). McCain is the ticket......he will cause our party to flourish and grow and restore it to the Party of Abe Lincoln, and the Party of Ronald Reagan!

Hillary Clinton suffered a stinging blow last night, losing Wisconsin by 15 points. What is worrisome for her is that Obama seems to have broken into several of her core voting groups. This is the first real evidence of momentum we have seen on the Democratic side.

.............

The same cannot be said for Wisconsin. Just 20% of Wisconsin Democratic voters claimed to make $100,000 or more per year. So, there is strong evidence that, at least last night, Obama expanded his voting coalition. Consider the following chart, which uses the exit polls to review Obama's margin of victory with key groups in the non-southern states in comparison to his performance with those same groups in Wisconsin last night.

To all those people who keep reminding us about his middle name 1. We accept people as they are. We do not care if that person bears Muslim name or Christian name or Hindu name or Jews name or someone from Mars name or whatever. We do not judge people in terms of name, race and religion. 2. We are Obama supporters. When we support Obama, we know what he is. You bring new stories everyday. You know we are liberals for god's sake. Your stories about him using someone else words, Michelle not being patriot or Obama having sex with some guy in Van or whatever is not going to change our choice. Even if he makes out with a goat or a dog or a rat or a cat , seriously, we would still accept Obama as our leader coz we believe in him and his policies. 3. If we are to start- we can start about Monica L. For god's sake Mr.Clinton did it in White House- that too 21-22 yr old intern... 4. And McCain- for God's sake he left his first wife because he found this another woman- Cindy or whatever her name is. But- we do not care........ So...Using his middle name to demotivate us is not going to help...

McCain is the ticket......he will cause our party to flourish and grow and restore it to the Party of Abe Lincoln, and the Party of Ronald Reagan!

McCain is “the ticket” back to Arizona and forced retirement. To compare McCain to Reagan is like comparing Dan Quale to Lincoln _ hysterically laughable. Just because McCain initiates all his speeches with a corny “my friends”, don’t mean he’s Reagan.

allReagan was a natural, McCain is the anti natural, anti inspiration and pro bovine candidate, a wonderful recipe for an Obama landslide and a 2009 – 2016 Democratic Whitehouse.

If you didn't: Watson apparently was the there to help Obama. I dont think he accomplished that.

What's the unique selling point of Barack Obama to Texans?, Matthews asked.

Watson responded with hope, excitement, building coalitions, etc.

Matthews said: You are a big Barack supporter aren't you senator?

Yes, I am, he replied.

Name some of his legislative accomplishments, Matthews asked.

Watson's face turned sour. He looked like a 5 year old who just lost his mother at the Mall.

Sir, you have to give me his legislative accomplishments, Matthews pressed. You support him for president. You are on national television. Name his legislative accomplishments, sir. Can you name anything he has accomplished, SIR??

Watson clearly wanted to get out of his seat and run out of the studio crying.

Time up.

The camera returned to Matthews and Countdown's Keith Olbermann, who clearly felt bad for Watson.

He is here to defend Barack Obama and he had nothing to say. That's a problem, Matthews said, justifying his inquisition. Why do you think they call it Hardball?

But this isn't Hardball. We are doing the election results, Olbermann replied.

The Clinton machine is starting to fight but I dont think it will do enough to separate the popularity of both candidates. I really dont think the public is going to care which Democrat is vice president or president (Democrats rarely look at semantics anyway). Many women have been saying for years they have not been treated fairly in the work place. That men have been promoted and succeeded where women who have been better qualified have been passed over. Here is an instance where Hillary's resume is far better then Obama's. But who are a majority of the women supporting on the Democratic side? Barack Obama of course (Yeah, I am proud to be a republican). Exit polling in Wisconsin showed almost an even split amongst white women. I believe 1 out of 7 African American women support Clinton.

The democrats just want to WIN. They hate Bush and want ANYONE who they think will win. In the beginning, that was Hillary. She was "Bill 2.0". She had all the internal support from the party leaders. She had the hollywood supporters. He had the money. She had name recognition. And, she had the BIG GUN... Bill... to come out swinging. How could she loose? Voting for Obama was just a waste of a vote and a waste of money. The two of them would go out and blast every republican they could find. It would be the democratic version of the St. Valentine's massacre.

Then, something weird happened. Iowan's weren't buying it. They started to see the dark side of the Clintons. When they got to see Hillary up close, they made her the third choice.

Then, it got worse. The attempted lawsuit in Nevada to change party rules... the Obama "Cocaine" pronouncement....the belittling Obama's win in South Carolina by putting it against Jesse Jackson's victory 20 years ago. All of these reminded people why they have an uneasy feeling with the Clintons.

Suddenly, Obama started to look like he could actually win. The more he won, the more popular he became. Democrats don't even care what he says. All they want is what they view as a winner. Right now, that's what he looks like.

Hillary is the same person that she was over a year ago. The only difference is that people see her more... and like her less. It's difficult to see how she can change this downward trend over the past 20 months by the time Texas and Ohio run around.

Bill has to sit back and wonder where he went wrong. People in the democratic are actually REJECTING him for the first time. What must be truly galling is that when the democrats say they want "change", them mean from Clinton just as much as they mean Bush. And Hillary supporters must be thinking-- 140 Million dollars for this?

Congratulations, Cuba! Fidel is done. May democracy flourish from sea to sea. :O)

sean conners aka sconn1: Feb. 20, 2008 - 12:14 AM EST

i think that is something all Americans can rally around...well said !

What do you mean "Congratulation" and "something all Americans can rally around?"

Castro has been on his deathbed for over a year now, he's 81. That he reliquished power to his brother Raoul at 81 is NOT due to a triumphant Bush administration, but because of aging and science. And it certainly wasn't because of due diligence on the part of the USA.

Ten American administrations tried to take this guy and his regime out and they failed. He's goin' out on his own terms and keeping power in the family, a rutheless family at that, mind ya.

Congratulations and rallies are way premature, it's gonna take an Obama Whitehouse to coax Cuba into deomcracy, only then can Americans turely celebrate, that's when Cuba adopts a democratic path due to American influence under president Obama.

just cause some dolt down in texas is an idiot and should not be on the air...doesn't mean obama doesn't have legislative accomplishments...and they are on the website...so i'm gonna assume that i don't have to go copy / pasting to "prove" it.

as far as political "shots" go...it was a good one...but easily discounted.

What do you mean "Congratulation" and "something all Americans can rally around?"

Castro has been on his deathbed for over a year now, he's 81. That he reliquished power to his brother Raoul at 81 is NOT due to a triumphant Bush administration, but because of aging and science. And it certainly wasn't because of due diligence on the part of the USA.

i mean that it is a good day for cubans. is it euphoria? no...but it is a step. i would like to see Obama or the US put out a cautous hand towards the brother...who isn't any spring chicken himself. but regardless of what i would like to see, i say congratulations to the people of cuba.

i never said a WORD about the bush administration, nor did i give them an ounce of credit. neither did she. of course they can't take credit for this, but they can send out a "if ya play nice "carrot and stick" kinda message."

the reasons aren't important...the fact that fidel is no longer, at least officially, the head hocho...it's a good thing...and sorry, i'm not a partisan hack for anyone. i do like Barack (as anyone who spends time on the forums knows) and would like to see him say something...but if the bush people put out the right words...that wouldn't bother me...i have a feeling they won't, based on what i've seen in 7 years...but i am not about "hating bush." i'm more about getting things done...and i'll give credit where i see it due...so if bush makes a positive step or 2 ( i do agree that the castro grip has been long and ironish, so things won't happen overnight) i would give him some credit when earned...but like i said, he hasn't earned any nor did i give any...so why put such words in my mouth?

In a state where half the voters were white women, where only one in ten voters were minorities, and where more than half were from households that made less than $74,999 annually, Wisconsin should have comported with Clinton's strengths.

After looking at voting patterns of some counties, it's obvious that certain locales preferred Clinton. They prefer her due to their populist roots. Not all of Wisconsin is like that, but areas that still hold strong to them, she did quite well -- especially bluest of blue-collar areas (dad's family were sailors and lumberjacks, for example).

But I knew Obama would've gotten the state, simply because the highest population areas were concentrated in the south of the state, nearer to Chicago. And Madison is the mecca of flaming liberals.